Animal Rights Group Pays People To Watch Propaganda

The Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) is on a bus tour, offering $1 to consumers to watch their grisly animal abuse video.

Let me preface this blog by saying that I don’t support anyone who abuses animals. Whenever a case of animal abuse is in the news, I’m disheartened and disappointed that anyone could mistreat a living creature the way some people do. However, I also know that these cases are a rarity -- not the norm. Whether you’re a pet owner or a livestock producer, I bet you care a great deal about your animals; otherwise why would you own them in the first place? Certainly we have to regulate the bad apples when animal abuse takes place, but I don’t believe that means we should outlaw pet-owning or livestock production, do you?

Well, if the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) has its way, there will be no more animal agriculture. FARM is on a nationwide bus tour, offering $1 to anyone who is willing to spend a few minutes to watch their grisly, dramatic video footage of how they see animal agriculture. After watching the video, consumers are urged to decrease their consumption of animal proteins and strive to go vegan.

The video documentary is four minutes long and is called “Farm To Fridge,” and is part of FARM’s 10 Billion Lives Tour -- named for their effort to save 10 billion farm animals. According to FARM, in July, they had more than 1,100 viewers in a single day in Uniondale, NY, and they have reached more than 23,000 people total.

Discuss this Blog Entry 89

CognitiveDissonant (not verified)

on Aug 28, 2012

1. Parting with money = lining your pocketbooks? Your economics are bizarre. I hope you don't run a business with this logic. And you honestly think animal rights activists are in it for the money? Oh yeah, the fat-cat animal rights activists lighting their Cuban cigars with $100 bills.
2. "Why would you own them in the first place?" Um, profit? You're telling me that you would continue to "own" livestock if it wasn't lucrative or financially sustainable? Please.

All I got to say is that you all must be athiest. Acts chapter 10 God commands Peter to rise kill and eat. The earth was put here for man to use and care for, along with all that is in it. I am proud of the livestock I produce, We put a lot of time into their care and well being. I know the end use is to produce food for my fellow man.
By you reasons for not eating meat, animals have feeling, killing, ect., you should not eat plants either. Plants respond to care, respond to music, and are living beings that are raised so man can survive. get a life, you live because a farmer produces your food.

The leaders of Christianity ignore much in the Bible that is against eating meat because they didn't want to stop doing so. To say that God is OK with killing innocent animals, who clearly do not want to die, fear death and want to live, is absurd. You are ignoring the obvious signs that meat eating, factory farming and killing animals is the life God wants for us.
If meat eating is so pleasing to God why must we hide it? Why is it disturbing to the human soul to watch them die or to partake in the killing? If we were meant to kill them why does it degrade us so and make us less human? Why is there so much alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence in the communities with slaughterhouses. No it is not the godly way to live, not even close.

You say to "livestock producers" I bet you care a great deal about your animals; otherwise why would you own them in the first place?

The reason those "producers" "Own" their "livestock" (aka animals with feelings) is to simply make a profit off them and then of course later kill them. So that is love in your book? Gee you seem to have a different definition than the rest of the world about love. And as far as pets? I ADOPTED my pet in West Hollywood California where we legally do not own them, we are their guardians. For life I made a commitment not to forsake her (or breed her) declaw her etc. Thankfully there are cities in the US who recognize that. That is love. Not "producing livestock" in factory farms for a profit when they are sold and killed.

Wow, you are seriously misinformed or brainwashed if you truly think that animal rights activists are in this for the money! How can you say you "care for your animals" when you are leading them to slaughter, for your own profit??

Farmers care about their animals? First off the videos are legion and we are steadily getting more. The very construction of the factory farm sets it up for abuse.

Secondly, they don't care. A breeder is set up with the ultimate goal of killing that person. It's systematic and not about care. A breeder cares about animals as much as the Nazi's cared about jews - http://www.humanemyth.org/

I'm pretty sure that Johan meant person = animal = human. A person is someone with a personality and self-consciousness. Sure, the word refers to humans in the conventional context, but every livestock animal has a unique personality, and they all are self-consciousness. They understand love, pain, fear and friendship. Isn't your dog or cat, if you have one, Anonymous, a person? How is a livestock animal different from a dog?

Dogs and cats ARE food in some countries. All animals have the sense of self, feel pain and fear, enjoy companionship and seek pleasure (a good back scratch is enjoyed on an equal playing field I think you'll find) regardless of the species. I have known pigs, sheep and cows that like affection as much as a dog.

The thing is some producers care, a hell of a lot don't and are in it purely for profit, and the easiest way to earn that profit is for animal welfare to be thrown out the window. Until the industries are much more stringently regulated, until intensive agriculture is completely banned, until cctv is mandatory in all slaughterhouses, I don't trust any of you, and will continue to boycott all animal products!!!

That is correct that livestock are used for food and pets are not but in other ways they are the same. They value their lives as much as each other, feel pain and grief as much as each other and should be treated with equal respect by humans.

Just beware--these extremist groups would also stop anyone from having any pets or companion animals AT ALL--this includes dogs, cats, horses, birds, etc. Being a vegan is one thing, speaking out about true abuse is one thing, but bullying others by using payment to watch propaganda to further their actual anti-animal agenda is quite another. Be careful who you support--you may inadvertently get what THEY want, not what you thought was the truth.

"Let me preface this blog by saying that I don’t support anyone who abuses animals. Whenever a case of animal abuse is in the news, I’m disheartened and disappointed that anyone could mistreat a living creature the way some people do. "

Really? Except for the ones that we kill and eat, then abuse is okay as long is it for our taste buds. Animal Rights isn't about money it's about the animals the blog is ridiculous and people really should know what something is about before spreading misinformation.

The beef industry couldn't survive without subsidies for the destructive, welfare ranchers. 80% of soy and corn is grown for livestock, so the subisides to them also go to the meat industry. 30% of the earth's surface is devoted livestock, and to o it all off humans thrive without any meat. World class athletes are vegan, so anyone can eat a plant-based diet.

When you say you are against animal abuse you are obviously talking about animals you consider to be pets right? Because your idea of "animal abuse" doesn't include murdering and eating cows that you have raised from birth. Puppy mills are bad because you don't eat them, but feedlots are ok because they aren't animals- they are just food. God you people are sick...

Is this the first pay-per-view of factory farming footage that you are aware of? You realize this has been going on for a LONG time. And there have been MANY, MANY videos of animal abuse, torture, and killing that have been shown, whether in documentary form, on the news, or through a pay-per-view tabling of an organization. Does that really make it a rarity, a "bad apple?" That's A LOT of bad apples.

"FARM is on a nationwide bus tour, offering $1 to anyone who is willing to spend a few minutes to watch their grisly, dramatic video footage of how they see animal agriculture." Of how THEY see animal agriculture? Seriously? IT IS HOW IT IS. That's why video is so powerful. Because it can show the truth behind a system that, I'm sorry to break it to you, is unnecessarily cruel and backed by greed/profit. The videos aren't fiction or perspective - they show exactly what happens.

I do understand there's a difference between a factory farm/a CAFO, a slaughterhouse, and a small farm where someone raises his or her own animals (of course, killing is involved in all). The question I have for you is: how many videos, how many instances have to surface, have to be shown, have to be testified about before you realize that it is the norm, it is the majority?

"The question I have for you is: how many videos, how many instances have to surface, have to be shown, have to be testified about before you realize that it is the norm, it is the majority?"
By that logic, just by watching the news I should assume that all people are rapists, murderers, and thieves.

Raising animals is one thing but then sending them to slaughter is another thing. The shipping, the killing is horrific. Some people are more cruel then others in this business but the animals are innocent. If we want peace in this world we have to learn compassion. We don't have to eat meat and therefore we avoid the pain, fear and suffering of innocent animals.

"named for their effort to save 10 billion farm animals" someone obviously didn't do their research. It is named for the 10 billion land animals are raised and killed every year for food in the U.S. alone. Their website clearly states, "the 10 Billion Lives Tour could spare 1 million animals per year."

"why would you own them in the first place?" To make money, of course.

When you commodify a living, feeling creature, how else are you able to "work" with it if not to give it less value than say a tomato, which is how they are able to suppress their humanity and commit acts like these. Of course, people do not have to suppress their compassion to work with vegetables and fruits.

How come the animal ag people are not putting out videos of animals throwing themselves on knives held by smiling farmers, if the industry is as happy as some folks claim?

How many hours do you work in a factory farm to be able to disprove this? If you aren't a livestock producer, then how do you know we don't care about our animals? Have you ever even talked to a producer to find out whether he/she does or doesn't care about the welfare of his/her animals? Instead of naively and ignorantly believing everything the media feeds you, why don't you do your own investigating if you think you know so much more than everyone else. I bet you find out you know less than you think you do.

Yes exactly as CD put it. "I bet you care a great deal about your animals; otherwise why would you own them in the first place?" - how about profit, or do you buy animals, love them and care for them until they are old and frail then anaesthetize them into a peaceful sleep before cutting them up to be sold? What a ridiculous asinine thing to say.

Don't forget that documentaries such as Farm to Fridge comprise undercover footage which is how people find out the truth. Far from being propaganda, but if it were, then how would you describe advertising on a mass scale comprising animals in lovely pastures with families around the dinner table in an all "wholesome" style. I think if you were to separate yourself from your beliefs and doctrines, you may come to realize that the advertising is propaganda to encourage consumption to keep the profits of Big Agri business, while showing undercover footage of animal abuse is, well just that, undercover footage, truth in other words. Just because you don't like the truth, doesn't make it any less so.

This is just yet more crocodile tear protesting in support of an abusive industry. Pathetic.

I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess that the writer of this article consumes animal products. If that is the case, then the statement of, "I don’t support anyone who abuses animals." Is a false one. Whether they know it or not. If you purchase products from companies that abuse animals, then you support someone that abuses animals. It literally is that simple.

And it truly perplexes me how the writer claims to. "know that animal abusers are the minority, not the norm." I'm going to take another stab in the dark and assume that the writer does not work at a slaughterhouse, nor a factory farm, and especially does not work at both, all over the country. If the writer had experience with all of those, only then would they have credibility in stating that they, "Know" something so profound. The fact of the matter is that you or I do not. "Know" But when there is so much possibility that animals that are raised and killed strictly for profit are done so by harming the animals, then I will choose not to fund it.

Forgive FARM for extending their hand and even their own money to what you call, "Lining their pockets" It's disheartening to me to know that you see their compassion as a money making scheme.

And I would like to emphasize what the previous commentator stated: that people who profit off of animal carcasses are not doing so for their passion of animals, they are doing so for their passion of money. It's a business to them, not a non-profit organization, like say FARM is.

from reading this i can see you no nothing about the reality of animal agriculture and dont even try to introduce the fact that you dont like animal cruelty and then follow by defending the meat industry. there are a million animals out there in suffering thinking about how much they hate you right now for trying to lower there chance of freedom. idiot

The main problem is how animal rights activists use a worst case scenario to paint a bad light on all agriculture.

Also almost all vegans/animal rights activists still buy food from a supermarket, this is extremely hypocritical but it does explain why most of them never talk about what goes on during the manufacturing of their own food but I guess the high number of animals that die in fields during crop harvesting are not as important to a vegan/animal rights activist as the sacred pig, cow or chicken.

& I don't think it's wrong for the author to say that it's another way for animal rights activists to line their pocketbooks, most of these organisations do ask for donations at some point, & many make a lot of money from this.

There's a world of difference between the unintentional/accidental harm to some creatures compared to the deliberate butchery of animals raised specifically for that purpose.

Also, there are many systems that minimize "accidental" harm to life almost completely - found in vegan organics. Search the web for more info... Furthermore, man cannot live without the consumption of plants - It is the very *least* amount of harm necessary for survival - The same cannot be said about flesh consumption which is totally frivolous!

Lastly the idea that "producers" "care" about nonhumans is absurd! They care about bottom-line profits. No one who truly "cares" about the fate of another would willfully calculate their demise at a slaughterhouse. Nothing about that is "kind", "compassionate" or "humane" at all!

Ms. Elliott do not dare presume to tell me what I do and do not care about. I do not make claims to know anything about your values and ethics. I would thank you very much to extend the same courtesy to others!

You may want to use the age old argument of creatures being injured/killed during the production of arable food but if indeed this is the case, meat eaters are still responsible for more of these deaths as it takes 16lb of grain/soy to produce 1lb of meat.

If AR activists are PAYING people to watch the videos, how are they lining their own pocket?

Viewers don't PAY to watch the video. They GET PAID to watch the video. FARM's pockets are getting emptied not lined. On the other hand, "livestock producers" pockets are lined with the profits they make from raising and killing animals, which is the ONLY reason they keep them. Animal lovers shouldn't be animal eaters. Go vegan.

Beside being cruel to animals, the meat industry is causing a food shortage for future generations: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/aug/26/food-shortages-world-vegetarianism?newsfeed=true"

Wow, HSUS is really trolling again. What's the matter you liberal die hards, afraid to hear a different side of the story? It's as it all of you were given a mission to troll and harass Amanda at any chance you get.

If cows were not raised by farmers, how many would really exist at all? Maybe one of you idiots can have one as a pet.

yep, they are on their mission, brings back memories of the yellow tail days. from that I learned you can't carry on any kind of a debate with them. they rant, rave, lie, make stuff up, won't answer questions, talk in circles, cuss, and often sound like lunatics.

This is not a liberal/conservative issue. I am not a liberal and I hate factory farming and killing animals just so we can enjoy flesh. This is an issue of compassion, ethics, how we are to live as humans, not liberal vs. conservative.

I just don't understand people these days. I do have a farm, and raise beef. My father did it his father and his father, back 8 generations. My family and I work hard for what we have. I DO NOT receive any goverment substidies. I do not abuse my cattle they are my livelihood. Most sane people realize that beef is the best source of protein a human body can recieve. I have never spoken out like this before, but something has got to give. We are letting this small minority of NUTS dictate what the rest of the country should do. If they can't stop you from eating meat then they will do whatever they can to raise the prices of it so that you can't afford it.

I am sorry if I ofended any of you, but you are trying to keep me from feeding my family, and the thousands of others that want a nutritious meal.

Read "the China study" That is your credit line for information about how meat consumption causes cancer... 1st of all FACTS about nutrition so far a pretty much theory at best because nobody can nail it down to science due to different body compensation and metabolism rates. 2nd of all the increase in cancer has come about since the house hold cook has stoped cooking from scratch, and started to cook out of boxes and cans. Our bodies were not designed to handle all the food additives and preservitives. If you have noticed people have been consuming meat and garden greens for centuries and we have never had a problem before. Now that technology has come on board and we can now get a can of corn to last on a shelf for 3 years and so on and so forth Cancer and other problems have become more prevelant along with people not being near as physically active as they used to be. So if you are going to run off at the mouth about something make sure you understand what it is that you are running on about. And by the way I come from a ranching family and we DO NOT BEAT or STARVE or NEGLECT our animals. They are treated with respect because their life does serve a purpose. It is called keeping a person from starving to death from malnutrition. Also last time I checked this was the USA land of the free. If you don't want to eat meat I respect that. I respect that you choose to earn a living a certain way and I will not come knocking on your doorstep telling you how wrong you are and what a sinner you are. So please keep a respectable tounge in your head when you talk about something that you know nothing about. If you would like to see what really goes on go visit some farm/ranches in the mid west. You will see what really does go on so you won't have to speculate and tell us what a bunch of terrable people we are.